


Unhinged

by JCapasso



Series: Alternative Haven [3]
Category: Haven (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:49:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28368675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JCapasso/pseuds/JCapasso
Summary: When Audrey wakes up back in the world where the troubles exist at the same time she left, losing almost fifty years of her life in the process, she just can't cope.Alternate sequel to Alternative Haven.
Relationships: Duke Crocker/Audrey Parker
Series: Alternative Haven [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2025788
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Unhinged

Audrey’s eyes snapped open as she sat up with a start. She had just been sitting in the pew at church. How had she gotten… “Hey? You okay?” she heard a voice from beside her and turned to see…Nathan…young…oh god. “What are you wearing?” he asked confused. 

“No…” Audrey breathed out in denial. “No, no, no, no, no,” she chanted closing her eyes and hugging her knees to her chest like that could make this not real. A horrible nightmare. 

“Audrey?” Nathan asked even more worried as he sat up next to her, only be knocked back down as she bolted out of bed for the bathroom and started puking her guts out in the toilet. Nathan got up and went to the door and asked, “Audrey are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she called miserably. “I just…want to be alone for a while. Please.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“Yes!” she snapped, and then felt bad for it right away. It wasn’t Nathan’s fault. “Sorry. But yeah. Just…I need some time alone.” 

“Okay. I guess I’ll head home then…” Nathan said confused. “You’ll call me if you need anything?” 

“Yeah. I will,” she lied. Nothing that she needed he could help with anyway. She heard him leave just as her stomach had nothing left to empty, but she didn’t move from the bathroom floor and hugged her knees to her chest again in her too large now clothes and sobbed. She’d lost everything. Her husband. Her children. Her grandchildren. They were worse than dead. They’d ceased to exist. Her entire world had just come crashing down around her ears. They had been so sure…but maybe it was just wishful thinking. Wanting to keep a world where everyone was safe and happy. And now she’d lost it all. And no one else would understand. Or remember. Unless…the trouble that had created that world in the first place. He would still know at least. And maybe they could bring it back. All of it. God, what was his name. It had been so long ago. Over forty years. How the heck was she supposed to remember the name of someone that she had talked to once that long ago? Damnit. 

She wracked her brain for two hours before it came to her. Cliff. That was his name. She reached into her purse instinctively to grab her phone and pulled it out only to have no service. That’s right. That type of phone hadn’t even been invented. When she went to put it back her hands found something else and her tears started again. Her photo album. The small one that she’d taken to carrying around with her. She pulled it out and flipped through, seeing that all the pictures were still there and then she hugged it to her chest. At least she still had something of them. Something to remember them by. So that she would never forget their faces. She picked herself up off the floor and went looking for her real phone. The one from this time. Once she found it she called Nathan. “I do actually need something if you don’t mind.”

“What is it?” he asked in a tone that clearly conveyed the message ‘anything’. 

“There was a woman who was hurt in the volcano…I think she died. She had a husband named Cliff. I need you to find him. Please.”

“Yeah okay. I’ll get right on it and call you back. Hey…Are you okay?” 

“Physically, yes, but otherwise, no…I’m really not. Just find Cliff, okay? Please?” 

“Okay. We’ll talk later?” 

“Thanks Nathan,” she said, ignoring his question as she hung up. She started to pace the room before huffing at her now baggy clothes. She had put on a little bit of weight in her old age and now her clothes didn’t fit. She hesitated for a long moment before she went to change and then hugged the wool coat to her chest. The side of it still smelled like Duke from where she’d been leaning against him. The musky sandalwood and brine mixture that was so uniquely Duke. She sat down an grabbed her album and started looking through the pictures, trailing her no longer shriveled wrinkly fingers over the faces of her loved ones as the tears leaked from her eyes. Cliff could fix it. He had to. She refused to consider the alternative. 

It was a long time before her phone rang. The sun was just starting to come up. “Nathan? Did you find him? Let me talk to him.” 

“I’m sorry, Audrey. He’s dead,” Nathan said sadly. 

“What? How? Why?” she asked brokenly. 

“It looks like suicide, but we’ll make sure. There’s a note here addressed to you. Do you want me to bring it by?” 

“Yeah…wait no, just read it to me…no wait…yeah bring it by. Thanks,” she finally decided. She didn’t want to have to explain everything right now and if there was enough in that note to give Nathan a hint, he wouldn’t let it go until he knew everything, and she couldn’t take that. No, best that she read the letter herself. When she heard the knock at her door, she opened it just enough to reach out and take the letter from his hand and then closed it back. She stood there long enough to hear him pacing outside the door for a few minutes before he apparently decided to leave. She went and sat down to read the letter. 

Detective Parker,  
I’m sorry. I hoped that world would stay after my death as I’m sure you did too, but it seems that it didn’t. I considered trying to bring it back, but you know how the troubles are. There’s always a downside. Even if I could, it would just start it over again and what would be the point? But I can’t live in this world again either. I created that one because I lost my wife. There I managed to move on. Get married. Have a family. I died in the hospital surrounded by my family and then woke up back here. Without them. Suzy gone. Back with the troubles. If anyone can understand this, it would be you. I died happy after a long peaceful life in that world. I refuse to live in this one. I hope you handle this better than me.   
Sorry,  
Cliff

Audrey clutched the letter so tightly in her fist that her knuckles turned white, not even caring that she was crumpling the paper as her tears fell fast and heavy again. There went her last hope. It was over. Cliff hadn’t even had any children in this world so even if she /would/ consider activating their trouble and getting them to wish it back it wasn’t an option. And like Cliff said in the note. That would just start it over anyway. It wouldn’t bring back her babies. How the hell was she supposed to go on like this? She wished she could do the same as Cliff and just escape it that way, but she knew that she could never bring herself to do that. 

She started looking around the apartment for a drink. She didn’t remember where she kept /anything/ here so it was an exercise in frustration. Then she remembered that Duke had given her a key to the Gull in case of emergency. Well, this was an emergency and that was a bar. She grabbed her keys from the table…at least they were easy to find…and headed downstairs. She left the money to pay for the bottles she took along with a note of apology on the counter before she headed back upstairs with an armload of bourbon. She had never had a favorite alcohol before, but so many years of drinking bourbon with Duke had given her a taste for it. She had no idea how long she’d been sitting up in her apartment, but she was sure that days had passed. At least. She had turned her phone off after the first day. Or maybe the battery had died. She didn’t even know. Or care. Nathan had come by about half a dozen times. Knocking and calling for her, but she just yelled at him to go away. When she responded at all. 

Nathan ran a frustrated hand through his hair as he was sent away yet again. He was beyond worried now, but he didn’t know what else he could do. All he could think of was to call in the big guns. He knew that he was horrible with feelings and talking and stuff, but there was only one person that was /always/ able to get through to Audrey. He headed downstairs and made his way towards the Rouge, finding Duke lounging on the deck. “Nate? You look like hell.” 

“I need your help,” Nathan sighed, hated even having to ask for it. 

“With what?” Duke asked suspiciously. If it was a cop thing, Audrey would have been with him. 

“Something’s wrong with Audrey.”

“What? What’s wrong? Is she okay?” he asked worriedly. 

“I don’t know and I don’t think so. But she won’t let me in. Or talk to me. She turned her phone off. I’m pretty sure she’s been drinking. At least it sounds pretty slurred when she yells at me to go away…”

Duke furrowed his brow. “She took a bunch of booze from the Gull the other day. She left a note and the money to pay for it so I wasn’t really worried about it, but…”

“What did the note say?” Nathan asked, looking for any clue as to what was going on. 

“It just said, ‘sorry. Booze emergency’. I just thought she was throwing a sudden party or needed it for a bribe or something like that,” he shrugged. “If she’s drinking that much though…”

“Can you try and talk to her?” Nathan asked desperately. 

“Why me?” Duke asked confused. 

“Because if she won’t talk to me, you’re the only one that has a chance,” Nathan sighed. “You’ve always been good at getting through to her. Please, Duke.”

“Yeah, okay,” Duke nodded. “I’ll try, but I’m not sure what I can do that you can’t.” Nathan was her boyfriend for crying out loud. If she didn’t talk to him why would he think she’d talk to Duke. 

“Thank you,” Nathan said relieved, knowing that Duke had no idea how he always managed to help Audrey any more than Nathan did, so he wasn’t surprised at the skepticism. “I can wait here?”

“I don’t know if that’s the best idea. I mean, if she’s as drunk as she would have to be if all that booze was for her, it’s gonna take me a while to sober her up enough to get something coherent. Just…I’ll call you, kay?” 

“Yeah okay. That makes sense. Just…help her?” 

“I’ll do my best Nate. You know that,” Duke promised heading inside to grab his spare keys to her apartment just in case they were needed. By the time he got back out, Nathan was pulling away so he headed upstairs and knocked on the door. 

“I said, go ‘way N’th’n,” she slurred throwing her now empty bottle towards the door delighting in the sound of it smashing. 

“It’s not Nathan,” Duke called through the door, realizing that Nathan seriously understated the problem. “It’s Duke. Can I come in?” Audrey froze at his voice. She didn’t know if she could face him either, but nor could she turn him away. “Audrey?” Duke called when she didn’t say anything or open the door. “Audrey, I’m getting a little worried out here.” Still nothing. “Either let me in or I’m coming in anyway,” he said alarmed. If she was passed out in the throes of alcohol poisoning or that glass breaking had hurt her…his thoughts were cut off by the door creaking open just a crack. He pushed it open the rest of the way to see Audrey retreating back to what looked like some kind of blanket nest on the couch. “Audrey? Sweetheart? You okay?” he asked gently, moving like he was afraid of spooking a wild animal, eyes darting around the room trying to gather as many clues as he could. 

“No,” she croaked out, reaching for a new bottle. 

Duke pulled the bottle out of her hands before she could open it. “I don’t think you need any more of that right now. Let me get you some water. Have you eaten anything? No, of course you haven’t.” He could see the remnants of a three day drinking binge but not a speck of evidence of food. He brought her a tall glass of water and said, “I’m gonna make you something to eat and then we’ll talk okay?” 

“Don’t wanna,” she pouted. 

“I’ll tell you what…if you drink all that water and then eat what I make you and then get some sleep, I’ll promise not to make you talk right now okay?” he tried to bargain, hoping that she was too drunk to notice the catch. 

She huffed. “Fine.” 

He went through her cupboards looking for something he could make quickly that was absorbent enough to soak up some of the alcohol but not heavy enough to upset her stomach after not eating for three days and he finally settled on a simple soup and grilled cheese. Ten minutes later he was putting the plate and bowl in front of her, deciding not to fight her on leaving her nest if that made her more comfortable right now. He noticed that the water was almost gone so he took it slowly and went to refill it. “There you go,” he said encouragingly as he saw her eating, but she was only eating with one hand. The other hand was clutching something to her chest in her blanket wrapped hand. “Whatcha got there?” he asked softly starting to reach out, but she just jerked away hard, knocking the glass of water to the floor. “Okay,” he leaned back and held up his hand. “Okay. None of my business. I get it.” He got up and went into the kitchen to grab a towel to clean up the water and then get the glass refilled again. He coaxed her to eat as much as she could before he took the dishes away and put them in the sink. “You want to go to the bed to lay down or sleep right there?” he asked softly. She just responded by scooching down and closing her eyes. 

Duke grabbed the blanket off the bed, it being the only one in the place that she wasn’t on top of and draped it over her, brushing her hair out of her eyes. “Duke,” she breathed out, clearly already asleep. 

“I’m right here,” he whispered in response in case she could hear him in her sleep. He grabbed his phone and texted Nathan. ‘Ate. Drank water. Sleeping now. Will update later.’ Then he texted Jennifer something much more coherent. ‘Audrey needs help. Not sure when I’ll be home. XO.’ That done he turned his attention to the mess. It looked like the place had been tossed by burglars looking for something. He started in the kitchen, and moved on to the rest of the apartment, getting everything cleaned up and put to rights, including all the empty bottles and after a moment’s hesitation, he hid the ones that weren’t empty. At least until she was stable again. As much as it galled him to be the responsible one. He had gotten a response from Jennifer asking if Audrey was okay and he sent back, ‘No, but she will be. I’m working on it.’ He checked the cabinets to make sure that she had asprin for the hangover she was sure to have before he went and laid down in the bed. He didn’t want to go far right now, but it was getting late and he was exhausted and there was a perfectly good bed not getting used. 

Duke was woken up by a groan just as the sun was peeking in the windows and he pulled himself up and grabbed the asprin he set out and got her a big glass of water. “Here you go. This should help,” he whispered, trying not to exacerbate her headache. 

“Okay, just stop yelling,” she muttered miserably.

Duke held back his snort of amusement. He also held back the teasing comment about her doing it to herself. He didn’t want to risk making it worse right now. At least not until he knew what was going on. Instead he just went to make a simple scrambled eggs and toast to get something light on her stomach. She was just barely creaking her eyes open when he set the food in front of her, sitting on the floor on the other side of the coffee table with his own plate since her nest took up the whole couch. He waited until she was finished eating and then went to refill her water again to help fight the dehydration before he came back and sat on the floor next to the couch this time and asked gently, “What’s going on?” 

Audrey hesitated for a long moment before pulling the letter out from between her arm and the photo album and handed it to him. Duke read it three times, trying to put as many pieces together from what was there as he could. “So someone’s trouble created a whole other world and it lasted long enough for him to find love and have a family before he died of old age?” He guessed and got a nod. “And…did you do the same? Get married and have a family and everything?” he guessed again, getting a tighter nod as her arm tightened around whatever she was clutching to her chest and he noticed the blanket fall away from her hand showing the wedding and engagement rings there. He thought the engagement ring looked a little familiar, but that thought left his mind as soon as it came. He had more important things to think of. “Oh Audrey. I’m sorry,” he said sadly, feeling his heart break for her. He slowly eased up onto the couch next to her and reached out to pull her into a hug, watching for any sign of discomfort from her but the moment his arm settled around her she burst into sobs, burying her face in his chest. He held her tightly with one arm while the other carded through her hair. “Shhh. I know. I can’t imagine what you must be going through right now. I’ve got you,” he whispered soothingly. 

“My babies,” she sniffled losing herself in the comforting and familiar scent of Duke. “Gone. Like…like they never existed. Everything…everyone…h-half a century just…gone.” 

Duke swallowed around the lump in his throat as tears of sympathy filled his eyes. Half a century she’d had that life. Babies. Maybe even grandbabies. Her husband. Probably friends. An entire life just wiped out in the blink of an eye and to end up back in this nightmare…God, it was a wonder she hadn’t done the same thing as Cliff, whoever he was. “God, I wish I could fix this for you,” he said helplessly, still running a hand through her hair. When he noticed her starting to drift off, he asked, “Do you mind if I tell Nathan what’s going on? You’ve got him all panicked, you know?” When she just shrugged, Duke took that as permission. He got that she didn’t want to talk about it right now, but Nathan deserved to know /something/. He wondered if it was Nathan that she married in that world. If maybe she was pushing him away because he was too much of a reminder of what she’d lost. He didn’t dare ask though. Not yet. She needed to be a bit more stable before pushing her to talk. It wasn’t long before she cried herself to sleep again and Duke held her for a little longer before gently easing her back down on the couch. He got up to step outside and call Nathan just as there was a very light knock on the door. He opened it to find Jennifer there, and he put a finger to his lips as he opened the door wide enough to step out, hearing Jennifer’s gasp as she looked inside. 

Jennifer had come up because Duke hadn’t made it home last night which made her even more worried about Audrey than before after that oh so cryptic message from Duke. Seeing her crumbled on the couch in a nest of blankets, dirty, streaked with tear tracks, pale, sunken eyes…she looked like death. “Will she be okay?” she asked fearfully. 

“I hope so,” Duke sighed. “I gotta fill Nathan in on what’s going on so you can hear then,” he told her and she nodded. “Nate…yeah she woke up for a little while, but she’s back asleep now. I think I’ve got enough food into her to stave off the alcohol poisoning and enough water that she’s not in too much danger from dehydration…I don’t know a lot of details but I got the basics…Apparently there was a trouble that created something like an alternate reality. Some kind of utopian world. She lived there for something like fifty years or so. Got married. Had kids. Grandkids. They thought it would stay that way, but when the troubled guy eventually died of old age, she got sent back here and everything else just…ceased to exist.” 

“Cliff was the troubled guy. That was why she wanted to find him. And why he left her that note,” Nathan realized. “I wonder if he was who she…”

“No. She let me read the note and it didn’t sound like it. I would guess that they hadn’t kept in contact judging by the way he was updating her on his life,” Duke explained. “I don’t know. I haven’t really got much in the way of words from her still. I got the overall story from the note and the rest from yes or no questions so she could nod or shake her head, so I have no idea of any details…yeah I’m not gonna go far until I get her a little more stable…you’re welcome.” 

Jennifer was crying by the time he hung up the phone. “Oh god…poor Audrey…I’d be a wreck in her shoes too,” she said. 

“Yeah, you and me both,” Duke sighed. 

“How come Nathan isn’t the one here helping her?” Jennifer asked curiously, trying to keep the bitterness from her voice. She knew how Duke felt about Audrey so it would always be a bit of a sore subject, but right now getting Audrey back in one piece was far more important than her feelings on the matter. 

“Because she won’t even look at him much less let him in to help her. She shattered a glass bottle against the door when she thought I was Nathan, so it would probably be hazardous to his health to keep trying,” he couldn’t help but chuckle. “He gave up and called me in after three days of no luck.” 

“Yeah, I guess I get that. And you are the best at making people feel better.” Jennifer wasn’t going to make a decision about anything on the spot like this but she was seriously considering taking Vince and Dave up on their offer of a room. Clearly things had changed with Audrey and she didn’t know if she could stand waiting and wondering how much that would change things for Duke. Sitting at home while her boyfriend was nursing the woman he loved back to health wasn’t something she really wanted to do. She was going to take some time to think rationally about it though. She leaned up and kissed him before heading back to the boat. The absentminded way he kissed her back was nearly enough to decide her right then and there. 

Duke slipped back inside, doing so as quietly as possible to not wake her up. She clearly needed the sleep desperately. He took the time to clean up from breakfast and then sat down in the floor to meditate. There wasn’t much else to do up here that wouldn’t wake her up and he needed to be able to keep his head together if he was going to help her. Seeing her like this was gutting him. He needed perspective. Not for the first time he wished that Claire was still alive. She would be able to get them through this. Then he thought about Daphne. She was a therapist too and after he’d saved her life she’d said that if he needed anything all he had to do was ask. Well, he needed something now. He pulled out his phone to text Nathan and see if he could get her number, but it didn’t take long before his hopes were dashed on that too. She had died in the meteors. There went that idea. 

Before he could sink back into his meditation, Audrey was stirring and Duke got up and grabbed her another glass of water and some more asprin and was there just as she tried to sit up. He helped her sit and then handed her the water and asprin. Once she had her eyes open a few minutes later, he suggested gently, “I bet you’d feel a lot better after a nice hot shower.”

“Nuh,” Audrey shook her head and then winced as she tightened the blanket around her and gripped the photo album more firmly. Taking a shower would mean letting it go and she couldn’t right now. 

“Okay,” Duke said soothingly. “It’s okay.” He got up and headed to the bathroom, grabbing a rag and wetting it with warm water before heading back to her and knelt in front of her on the floor. “Let’s just do this then.” He reached up and gently began to wipe the tear-tracks from her face, but then the tears started falling again. He kept going though. At least he could clean up the old ones. The cheek that the rag wasn’t working on was held in his large hand, thumb brushing away the new tears as fast as they came. “It’ll be okay, Audrey,” he said softly as he continued washing her face. “I know it doesn’t seem like it right now, but you’ll get through this, okay?” 

“I-I d-don’t want to,” she cried. “I want to go back. I want…” that was as far as she made it before the sobs took over again. 

Duke set the rag on the table and moved back to the couch, taking her in his arms comfortingly. “I know, sweetheart,” he whispered as he ran a hand through her hair and she clung to him tightly. “And if I could take you back I would do it in a heartbeat. I would do anything to fix this for you.” 

Audrey let herself fall apart in the more than familiar arms for a little while before she pulled away. “I…m-maybe I /should/ go take a shower.” She couldn’t get too comfortable with this Duke. She had to remember that this was the one who never wanted her. She shrugged off the blanket, hiding the album in the folds and shuffled quickly towards the bathroom. For more reasons that just a shower after all the water Duke kept feeding her to stave off the dehydration. 

Duke watched her go, wondering at the rapid turnaround, but deciding not to look a gift horse in the mouth. He decided to try and get a few more answers before he started some lunch for them and waited until he was sure that she wouldn’t be coming right back out before he reached for the album she’d hidden. He needed to have a better idea of what was going on if he was going to help her and since she wasn’t talking, there was only one way to know. 

He flipped the album open to the first picture and couldn’t help but smile as he saw a picture of her leaning on him and both of them laughing. It could almost have been taken in this world except for the fact that he was never that clean pressed. They both had cups of coffee in their hands and he could tell that at least he was mostly the same. He could see the same spark in his eyes, the relaxed demeanor, the same laugh lines that he saw every day in the mirror. She clearly thought he was the same too since that was exactly the way she had always leaned on him too. He was glad that they were friends in that world. Maybe that was why she was letting him in. 

He flipped a few pages before he saw a picture that made his breath hitch. She was sitting on his lap and they were kissing. Him and Audrey. They were together. At least for a little while anyway. That didn’t mean they stayed together. He ignored the fact that she wouldn’t likely keep so many pictures of him, and pictures like that, if they had broken up and she married someone else. Instead, he just kept flipping, trying to find some more evidence of anything. It was only a few more pages before he saw what was clearly a proposal. He was on one knee in front of her with a ring box. He couldn’t help his snort of amusement when the next picture was of them laying on the ground as he was apparently tackled and he flipped the page to find his suspicions confirmed as it was a posed picture of her showing off the ring and his arms around her, both of them beaming happily. He trailed his fingers over the picture, trying to think of a time in his life that he’d ever been as happy as he looked there, but couldn’t think of a single moment. He didn’t think he’d ever seen her that happy either. 

Duke knew that he didn’t have much more time so he flipped to the end. He had to see if they had made it all the way. The last picture of the album made him tear up. He and Audrey were clearly still together, much older, and standing behind two young men, clearly a couple, and he could easily recognize the one holding the baby as his and Audrey’s son. He was the spitting image of Simon Crocker, but with Audrey’s blonde hair and his own dark brown eyes. He barely even registered the fact that apparently his son was gay. It didn’t even matter. He was pulled from his musings when he heard the shower shut off and he quickly snapped the album closed and put it back under the blanket where it was before moving to the stove to start lunch. 

By the time Audrey came out, now in pajamas, and curled herself back up inside her nest with the same blanket wrapped around her and hugging the album to her chest again without a word, Duke was already putting the pasta in the boiling water. “Feeling a little better?” he asked gently. 

“No,” Audrey said miserably. If anything, she felt worse. Every motion she made towards normalcy in this life was like one more step of leaving that life behind. 

Normally Duke would have made his own sauce, but he wanted to be more available to her right now and that took too much attention so once he had the noodles going he headed back to her. He started to sit on the couch but noticed her tense so he changed his mind and sat on the table in front of her and took her hands in his. “Is there anything I can do to make this easier for you?” 

“Give me my booze back,” she huffed. 

Duke could understand that more than she knew, but he also didn’t want her to get in the same state that she was before. “How about we make a deal? If you’ll eat a good portion of the nice lunch I’m making us, we’ll have a few drinks after, okay?” He was the last one to decry booze as a coping method, but there was a limit. One that she had seriously surpassed before and he would make sure that she didn’t get that bad off again. When she just nodded, he patted her knee as he stood up and went to stir the noodles. He tried a few times to coax some kind of conversation from her, but she stayed stubbornly silent, so he let her. 

Lunch was also spent in silence but she ate most of her plate so he lived up to his end of the bargain and pulled a half full bottle out of one of his hiding places and two glasses. He sat on the floor in front of the couch as he poured them both glasses and handed her one. She tossed it back in one drink and held it out for more which he gave her. When he went to refill her the third time, he said, “This is the last one for now, so you might want to make it last.” She huffed, but sipped it slowly just as there was a light knock on the door. “Do you want to see anyone?” he asked gently and she shook her head profusely. “Okay then I’ll go check it out and be right back. I’ll probably call and let Nathan know how you’re doing while I’m out there too if that’s not him, okay?” She nodded slowly. 

Duke got up and headed to the door. When he saw it was Jennifer he slipped outside. “How is she?” Jennifer asked worriedly. 

“Crap. Hang on a sec,” he suddenly remembered something and slipped back inside, taking the bottle from her hand as she was refilling her drink, getting a glare in the process. “I’m just gonna take this with me for now,” he said, heading back for the door, letting her get away with what she’d already added. 

“She’s drinking again?” Jennifer asked even more worried. 

“In moderation,” Duke shrugged. “I’m keeping an eye on it.” He held up the bottle for evidence. “She actually got up and took a shower before eating a full lunch, so I figured she deserved a bit of a reward.” 

“And you’re sure that’s the best idea?” Jennifer asked hesitantly. 

“Not really, no. But I don’t know what else to do. I mean, if I’d been through what she had, I’d be drowning myself in the bottle too. I’m just trying to teach her not to kill herself with it.” 

“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Jennifer sighed before getting to the other reason she had come up here. “Do you know if you’re gonna be home tonight?” 

“Yeah, probably not. She’s still not doing very well. Other than the shower, she hasn’t moved from her nest of blankets and is barely speaking and if I’m not watching…well…” he held up the bottle again. 

“Okay. I get that,” she told him, trying very hard to keep her own insecurities at bay. 

“Is that…okay? I mean…” Duke was suddenly a little worried about losing her. Staying with another woman two nights in a row couldn’t be good for a relationship, but it wasn’t like he had much choice. Audrey had been on the verge of killing herself and he was the only one she would let in. 

“No, it’s fine. I completely understand. You’re being a good friend. I can’t fault you for that,” she assured him. And herself. She leaned up for a lingering kiss. “I’ll let you get back to her. I just wanted to check in.” 

Once she was gone, Duke pulled out his phone to call Nathan and give him a quick update before heading back inside. He mostly just sat with her for the next few hours, alternating between holding her while she cried and trying to get her talking. He made the same deal for dinner where the finished the spaghetti he’d made for lunch and then had a few more drinks before she cried herself to sleep, once more on the couch. Duke considered carrying her to bed, but decided that she seemed to be most comfortable in her nest and that was the important thing right now, so he just put the blanket over her and went to clean up. 

Now that he had time, his mind was buzzing with everything he’d learned. She’d been married to him in that other world. A version of him that, by all accounts, was very similar to the real him. But it wasn’t the real him. She’d made her feelings about the real him perfectly clear. More than once. Those differences must be what changed things. He felt a lot better now that he had that much straight in his head. She’d chosen Nathan over this version of him and he was moving on. He was with Jennifer. She was just his friend. That was all. He couldn’t let himself forget that. That kind of happiness wasn’t in the cards for this version of him. By the time he went to pass out in her bed, he had come to terms with the way of things. 

When Duke woke up the next morning, he noticed that she was already awake but didn’t look like she’d moved. She was still in the same spot in the nest of blankets, she was just sitting up now and looking at something in her lap, probably the album, with tears streaming down her cheeks. As he got out of bed, she slammed the album closed and hugged it back to her chest. He gave her a reassuring smile and went to start the coffee and breakfast. She mostly picked at the food, but she ate enough and he knew that she wasn’t a big breakfast person anyway, so he didn’t try and fight her on it. He had decided on a new tactic for this morning and decided that he would talk and see if she chose to jump in at some point. Talking about things that she had no interest in might get her to try and steer the conversation. He started with talking about his maintenance schedule for the boat and what he had to do soon but he ran out of things to say on that topic after an hour, so he switched to fishing, telling her about his favorite fishing spots, what kind of fish he generally caught there, the different baits he used, and so on. 

That kept him talking until lunch and he realized that wasn’t working so as he cooked he started working on a new idea. She ate absentmindedly and the second her plate was clean she asked, “Booze now?” 

That gave Duke an idea, but before he could say anything there was a light knock on the door. He looked at Audrey who shook her head in denial of seeing anyone, so Duke went to get the door, slipping outside when he noticed Jennifer. “I wanted to talk to you about something if you have a few minutes?” she asked hopefully. 

“For you? Of course. What’s wrong?” 

“I’ve decided to take Vince and Dave up on their offer of a room,” she told him shakily. 

“You’re…leaving,” Duke said feeling his chest clench as he looked back and forth between Jennifer and Audrey’s door a few times. “Is it because…” 

“No,” she said quickly. “No, it’s not because you’re helping Audrey. I know that she needs you and you’re being a great friend by helping her and that’s one of the things I like the most about you.” 

“Then why?” Duke had to ask. It wasn’t like being walked out on was anything new to him and he was already fortifying his walls. He just wanted to see if he got an answer. 

“Because our timing just isn’t very good. There’s so much going on with the troubles and everything falling apart and now this with Audrey, and you have so much on your plate already. You don’t need to be worrying about me too. Maybe when all this is over, we can give things another try, but for now…”

“So you’re deciding what I need,” Duke said coldly, already reaching for the door. “Right. I guess I’ll see you around then.” 

“No, Duke wait. That’s…not what I meant,” Jennifer tried to stop him. 

“It’s fine, Jennifer,” Duke said tightly. “Believe me, you’re not the first and probably won’t be the last to realize that I’m better off alone.” 

“Duke…” that was as far as she got before he was gone, and the door closed behind him and she felt the tears welling up in her eyes. She had spent hours rehearsing what she was going to say only for it to completely backfire and him to take the exact opposite meaning from it. She didn’t know what else she could do at this point though, so she just sighed and left. She’d already loaded up all her stuff in her car but had wanted to talk to him before she left so he wouldn’t end up going back to the boat and find her stuff gone without any explanation. That wouldn’t have been fair to him. 

Duke slipped back inside to see Audrey slam the album back closed and hug it to her chest again. Duke went over and grabbed two shotglasses, pouring them each one and they were both tossed back in short order. “Are you okay?” Audrey asked wiping the tears from her cheeks. 

“Fine,” he assured her. “Nothing to worry about.” She didn’t need any more on her plate and consoling him over a breakup when she was still hurting over losing that other version of him herself would be the opposite of helpful. “That’s the question I should be asking you, don’t you think?” he deflected. 

She snorted derisively, wiping her tears again. “How could I possibly be okay?” 

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked gently, putting all his own crap back in a dark corner of his mind for the moment. Jennifer, the other version of him, the troubles, Wade…none of it mattered in this moment. Audrey was his friend and she needed him. That was the only important thing. 

“No,” Audrey shook her head and held out the shot glass for more.

“Okay, how about we play a game,” Duke suggested. 

“A drinking game?” 

“Yep. A drinking game. I ask you a question. When you answer, you get a shot,” he smirked. 

“What kind of questions?” she narrowed her eyes suspiciously. 

He knew that asking for full involved stories right now was probably not going to happen, but if he could just get in a crack maybe it would open the floodgates. “Questions that can be answered in ten words or less.” She considered it for a moment before nodding as Duke considered the first question to ask. He would only get so many before she had too much to drink so he didn’t want to waste them with pointless ones, but he didn’t want to hit her with the big stuff right off the bat either. “How long were you married?” he finally decided on. 

“Forty-two years,” she told him, and then downed the shot he gave her and he took one for himself too. 

“What were your kids’ names?” he asked. 

She considered that for a minute. Their oldest son’s name would be rather telling, but she could give him his nickname. “Si, Lucy, and Caspian.”

He poured them both another shot which was quickly downed. “How many grandchildren did you have?” 

“Six, with a seventh on the way,” she told him, sniffling at the thought of the baby that would never be born and this shot was downed even faster. 

“What was your wedding date?” he asked, wondering how long she’d been there before they got married. 

“June fifth, twenty twelve.”

He poured them both another shot as he did the math. She had been there just over a year before they were married. “What was your first child’s birthday?” 

“February nineteenth twenty fifteen,” she told him, already reaching for the shot and barely giving him a chance to fill it up as the tears filled her eyes again. 

Duke downed his shot as he considered his next question, which would be the last. She was already swaying, and he was more than a little tipsy himself. “What was your husband’s name?” he asked in almost a whisper. 

Audrey froze at the question, halfway to putting the shot glass back on the table for a refill and her eyes went wide. She couldn’t answer that. Couldn’t tell him that. Could she? What was the worst that could happen? He would leave her alone and let her drink as much as she damn well pleased? She finally managed to croak out the word, “Duke,” keeping her gaze on the table, not even able to look at him. 

Duke swallowed heavily as he poured them both another shot. He had already known, but somehow the fact that it was out there now made it so much different. When she set her glass back down expectantly, clearly waiting for the next question, he shook his head. “I think we’ve had enough for now,” he told her. 

“I don’t,” she said petulantly. 

Duke sighed and reached up to brush her hair back. “Audrey, sweetheart. You know I’m the last person who would normally try and control you, but I don’t think you realize how bad off you were when I got here. I wouldn’t be a very good friend if I let you keep doing that to yourself. Any other way you want to cope, I’m game. I’ve even got some weed on the boat I can go get, but I’ll deny admitting that if the handcuffs come out,” he joked. 

Audrey finally looked up at him for the first time since her admission and when she could see the concern shining in his eyes, she couldn’t hold herself back anymore and leaned forward to kiss him hungrily. He couldn’t stop himself from kissing her back at first, the alcohol and his own heartache from Jennifer dumping him lowering his inhibitions, but it wasn’t long before he found the strength to pull back. “Audrey…” he started to say, but she cut him off. 

“Please, Duke,” she begged. “Just this once. Help me forget. Just for a little while.” She kissed him again, this time sliding off the couch to straddle his lap. 

Duke’s strength was rapidly waning as his arms wrapped around her, one around the small of her back, pressing her down against his rapidly forming erection as the other moved up to tangle in the back of her hair. As her lips moved down his jaw to his neck, he still had to point out, “Nathan. Y-you’re with Nathan.” 

“Don’t care,” she gasped out as she put enough space between them to fumble with his belt. “Please, Duke,” she breathed out as her lips moved to the sweet spot on his neck and she got his belt open. 

Duke growled as he got to his feet, picking her up as he did, and walked the ten steps to the bed and fell into it, pressing his erection against her core as her legs wrapped around his waist. He knew that this was going to hurt like a bitch when it was over, but he didn’t care. He would give her anything she needed, no matter how bad it hurt. He would let her use him in any way she wanted to because he was completely powerless against her. Especially now. He reached for her shirt and she sat up long enough to strip it off before doing the same to his and then his lips were attacking her neck and shoulders and moving down. “I swear to fucking god, Audrey…if you want to stop this…you better tell me now…” he gasped out, rocking his hips harder against her. 

Audrey responded by reaching down to undo his pants the rest of the way and that was the end of Duke’s resistance as he moved long enough to drop his own pants and rip hers off of her and then he was slamming inside her as her nails raked down his back. His lips captured hers in a hard desperate kiss as her hips met him thrust for thrust. Part of him wanted to slow down and savor this, despite how much more it would hurt, but the rest of him was just too lost in her and she clearly had no intention of letting him slow down anyway, so he resorted to counting his breaths to keep himself from ending this embarrassingly soon. He didn’t want to cum yet, but fuck if she wasn’t pushing him to the brink. 

One of Audrey’s hands tangled tightly in Duke’s hair that had long since come undone from his ponytail as the other clutched for purchase against his sweat slick skin and his lips wrapped around her nipple, sucking hard. She pressed her hips, meeting his rock hard cock with every thrust in a motion that was as familiar as breathing. “Harder…faster…” she panted, desperately needing more. 

Duke gave a rumbling moan, getting his knees more firmly underneath him so he could do as she asked, moving one of her arms under her leg which she proceeded to throw over his shoulder and she let out a cry of pleasure at the change of angle as he slammed into her mercilessly. He was trying to hold himself back but when she cried his name as her walls clenched around him that was the last straw and he let out a guttural growl as he spilled himself inside her. 

By the time Duke rolled to the side, still trying to catch his breath, he realized that he’d been right earlier. It hurt like a bitch. Knowing that this was a one time thing. Or even if it wasn’t a one time thing, knowing that she loved someone else and he just reminded her of him. He didn’t change his mind though. He would be whatever she needed him to be. When she rolled to his side and wrapped her arm around his stomach, he instinctively pulled her close, but he still had to say, “You know I’m not him right?” 

“You are in all the ways that matter,” she sniffled, trying not to cry on him again. “I mean, I know that you don’t…feel the same way about me, but…” 

Duke could feel his heart ripping in two right now. This was what he couldn’t take. He would let her use him all she wanted, but he couldn’t let her think that he was the same. She would just end up disappointed and it would make everything so much worse. He had to make her see that it wasn’t really him that she loved and he could only think of one way right now. “Tell me about the moment you fell in love with me?” he asked. She would tell him a story from that other world and he could use that to break the delusion. 

“Well, it was more than a moment, but okay,” she said, taking a deep breath for courage. It wasn’t like it was a secret anymore, after all. “It started at the lighthouse. When you were old and the baby was being born. I saw you realize what was going on and I saw the acceptance in your eyes. You were okay with dying if it meant that your baby could live. No matter how that baby came about.” 

“You mean…” Duke cut himself off waiting for the rest of the story. Surely that part was from the other world. 

“That was when I started paying more attention. When I realized that you weren’t what you pretended to be,” she continued. “Then I showed you the baby’s picture. I saw the look in your eyes. The love and the longing for that baby you never even got a chance to meet. Just because she was yours. For just a few minutes, you let all your walls down and I got to see the real you and in that moment, I loved you. I would have done anything for you from then on.”

Duke felt his heart beating out of his chest as he realized that maybe he’d been wrong all along. Maybe all the heartache he’d felt over her for so long was due to some misunderstandings. He had to be sure though. “So…when you met the other version of me…”

“I saw you,” she told him as her tears finally fell. “He was so much like you in all the most important ways. How could I not love him? And…and that version of you, he…he loved me too. He…” 

“You stopped in Colorado,” Duke pointed out when she trailed off. He couldn’t put himself out there without understanding that. 

“I could tell that you were hesitant. That your heart wasn’t really in it and…you were my rock Duke. The only thing keeping me strong. I couldn’t risk losing that by pushing something you didn’t want,” she explained before realizing, “And then I go and do it here anyway,” she sighed sadly. “I’m sorry, Duke.” She went to move away from him. 

Duke’s arm just tightened around her, not letting her go anywhere. “Audrey, wait,” he breathed out quickly before taking a second to plan his words. “You’re right. I was hesitant. But it wasn’t because my heart wasn’t in it. It was just the opposite actually. I’ve loved you from the moment I met you, and…despite you being a cop, despite you pushing me around and blackmailing me and strongarming me at every turn…I stuck my neck out. I asked you out. I don’t think you realize how much that took out of me. Just to be able to do that. And then I got my heart stomped on. You didn’t just stand me up. You forgot all about me. And then in Colorado…it felt like I was sticking my neck out again and…I was scared.” 

“You…love me?” she asked, picking her head up to look at him, spark of hope shining in her eyes. 

Duke couldn’t help but smile at that. It was a small spark, but it was there. The first he’d seen since this mess started. Even if he didn’t love her, he would have lied to her right now, just to see more of that. There was no need for lies though. “I’ve always loved you, Audrey. When you stopped in Colorado, I thought…”

“That I was ‘standing you up’ all over again,” she realized sadly. 

“And then you chose Nathan,” he sighed. 

“Not really,” Audrey admitted. “I mean, yeah I might have latched onto him a bit when I was feeling hurt and rejected, but…when I kissed him like that before the barn, it was just to give him a happy memory to hold onto. If I’d thought you’d accept it, it would have been you. Then when I got back, both of you were pushing me on him and I just…got wore down I guess. I even told him, the night we got together, that we wouldn’t work. That we couldn’t be together. But then he kissed me anyway and I just…went along with it, you know?” 

“I’m sorry, Audrey. I didn’t realize…I would never have pushed you towards something I didn’t think you wanted. I never meant to /push/ you at all.”

“No, I’m sorry, Duke. All this got so messed up because of me. Because I was too scared to admit that I had feelings for you and bailed on that date and hurt you.” 

“I’ll forgive you if you’ll forgive me?” he asked hopefully. 

“I’ll always forgive you, Duke,” she whispered. 

“And I’ll always forgive you,” he replied, running a hand through her hair. They enjoyed the silence for a few minutes before he asked, “Are you ready to talk now?” 

“I…um…” she said hesitantly. 

“If you’re worried about how I’ll feel about you loving that other version of me too, don’t be. I’m okay with it,” he assured her. If she truly saw them as the same, and if he was the one she loved first, then it would be silly for it to bother him. “Tell me about our life together?” he coaxed gently and the words started flowing. 

Duke was a bit taken aback to learn that he was a cop in that world, but when she explained how it was the family business and that his dad was apparently a good guy there and had raised him he could see how it could happen. He could still recognize himself in her stories despite that. The way he helped and protected people, bent the rules when it was necessary, the love for the water and the freedom of it. Learning how he had gotten her to love it too and she’d become an avid fisher, he realized the flaw in his first tactic of the day. He’d been trying to bore her into talking and instead did the opposite. She told him how they got together, how he proposed, the wedding and story upon story about their kids. It was like once the floodgates opened, she couldn’t stop talking and he wasn’t in any rush to stop her. He loved hearing about the life they could have had and she clearly needed to open up before she ended up drinking herself to death trying to keep it bottled up. 

There were a lot of tears as she remembered the life she’d lost and Duke just held her, running a hand through her hair or over her back as they fell. This time, they were healing tears though. She was starting to accept that it was all gone and not coming back, no matter how much it hurt and it would never stop hurting, but she finally had hope that maybe she could manage to move on. That she could still live, even without them. As long as she still had her rock, she could survive and maybe even find happiness again. 

As she told him everything, they completely lost track of time which led to them being startled by the door opening and a call of, “Duke? Audrey? Everything okay? You’re not answering your…” Nathan froze as he walked around the corner and caught sight of them both scrambling out of bed reaching for clothes. “…phones,” he finished uselessly as he tried to process what he was seeing. 

“Nate…listen…” was as far as Duke got before the right cross knocked him back over the bed, pants only halfway up. 

“You son of a bitch!” Nathan snapped. “I asked you to /help/ her, not take advantage of her pain so you could screw my girlfriend!” 

“That’s not what happened,” Audrey moved in front of him, having grabbed her robe to throw on rather than worry about her clothes. When Nathan scoffed and started to say something, she added, “If anything /I/ took advantage of /him/.” 

“So, this is what you’ve been holed up in here doing for the last three days?” Nathan sneered looking between them. “Screwing around on me /and/ Jennifer?!” 

“Jennifer?” Audrey asked confused, looking from Nathan to Duke and back. “What’s Jennifer got to do with anything?” 

“You didn’t even tell her you had a girlfriend now?” Nathan scoffed at Duke. 

When Audrey looked back at him with a look of pure hurt on her face, Duke rushed to say, “First of all, the screwing around is very recent. Since /after/ Jennifer came all the way up here to dump me for trying to help my friend.” 

Audrey relaxed at that and gave him a nod that said that she got it and wasn’t upset. “Second of all, it wasn’t just ‘screwing around’” she added to Nathan. 

“Look, I suspected that we were done once I found out what happened, but this…you should have at least had the courtesy to dump me /before/ jumping into bed with my best friend,” Nathan said hatefully. 

“Okay, you’re right,” Audrey admitted. “And Duke did try to point that out to begin with.” She wanted to take at least a little bit of the heat off of him. “I just wasn’t in any shape to listen. I just…I needed…”

“Oh I can imagine what you needed,” Nathan scoffed dismissively. 

“And you’d be wrong,” Audrey tried not to snap. Nathan was right. She was the one who’d screwed up and he had every right to be upset and hurt. She hesitated for a minute before reaching out for her album. He at least had the right to understand. “Look,” she told him opening to the first page of the album and then flipping forward to the proposal, and then the wedding, and then to the picture of Caspian’s birth with Lucy and Si sitting with them and the baby. 

Nathan froze in shock from the first photo and as they kept going, he started to get it. That didn’t make it hurt any less or make what they’d done any less wrong, but he got it. He was done yelling and would content himself with the one punch so he just turned and walked out, slamming the door behind him. He was done with both of them. Audrey had been right before. They were co-workers and that was it. 

As soon as the door slammed behind Nathan, Duke rushed to Audrey’s side just as her knees buckled and she choked a sob. The adrenaline had kept her going until Nathan left, but now that it was over, she was falling apart again. He helped her to the couch, taking her in his arms as she cried. “I’m sorry, Audrey,” Duke said sadly. “I shouldn’t have let that happen. I should have…”

“No,” she shook her head, burying her face in his neck. “You tried. I’m the one who didn’t listen. I mean…I don’t regret what we did. Just…”

“The way we did it. I know,” Duke sighed, pressing a kiss to her head. 

“Let’s get out of here, Duke,” she said pleadingly. 

“Where do you want to go?” he asked confused, thinking maybe she just wanted to go out to eat or something. 

“Anywhere. Everywhere. Let’s just…leave Haven behind and just…go.” 

“But the troubles…” That was what she did. She helped with the troubles. 

“I don’t care anymore,” she said plaintively. “I did my part. I was willing to sacrifice everything by going into that barn. Nathan was the one who screwed that all up. Let him clean up the mess. I’ve lost…too much to all this. I just…need to go. Get away from the troubles. Get away from this whole damn town and the ghosts that it carries. I can’t…can’t stay here…seeing the playground our kids played in, the shops they loved, the hospital where they were born, the…I just can’t. It’s too much. Please can we just go?” she begged. 

“Okay,” Duke told her. “Anything you need, Audrey.” It wasn’t like they couldn’t come back later if she changed her mind and he got why she couldn’t stay here right now. “But you really should at least leave a note even if you can’t bring yourself to tell anyone.” He knew that he was the last person Nathan wanted to hear from right now and either of them calling him at the moment probably wouldn’t end well, so a note it would have to be. 

“Yeah. Okay,” she nodded as she got her tears back under control. 

“While you’re doing that and packing up, I’ll go get the boat stocked for a trip, okay?” he offered and she quickly agreed. Three hours later, the Cape Rouge was leaving Haven never to return and Audrey felt like she could finally be free. 

A month later, the Cape Rouge made port in Kochi, Japan. Partially to pick up some crates for Duke to smuggle, a business which Audrey was slowly learning, but mostly to make a stop at a store for pregnancy tests. They’d been careful since they left Haven, but once she had missed her period, they realized that the first night, when they’d both been emotionally wrung out and drunk, neither of them had even considered the idea of protection. When the test came up positive, they stuck around for a few more days so that Duke could get supplies to babyproof the boat as much as possible. 

After that, each time they stopped at a port somewhere was accompanied by a doctor visit and after the first few months, getting baby supplies. Whenever they were on the open water, they were both busy turning the spare room into a nursery, but Audrey let Duke handle bolting down the furniture. She didn’t want to risk breaking the boat if she tried. Audrey didn’t want to leave the boat for long. It was her refuge. She agreed to spend that last two weeks of the pregnancy docked wherever was closest to where they were at the time, but that was as far as she would go. Unfortunately, the baby wasn’t so keen on the idea of waiting until the last two weeks and they were still four days out when Simon Duke Crocker was born. 

Duke was more than glad that he’d read up on delivering a baby just in case this sort of situation cropped up, and he handled it just like he did everything else that came up on the water. By keeping his head and doing what needed to be done and when he set his perfectly healthy son in his equally healthy mother’s arms, he let out a sigh of relief. They still continued to the nearest port though and took both Audrey and Simon for a checkup and registered the baby in Finland. Two years later, Lucy Sarah Crocker’s country of birth was Madagascar and Caspian Dylan Crocker a year after that was born in Peru. 

Duke had separated the spare room into two, the slightly larger side would be for the two boys and the smaller one for Lucy. Caspian had a bassinette in the master bedroom for the first year though before moving into the room with his brother. With three kids on the boat, they had to stop to resupply more often, but Duke managed to turn that into an increase in business so there wasn’t any complaining. Duke usually took care of the business and resupplying while Audrey stayed on the boat with the kids. Other than their newborn checkups none of the kids left the boat until Caspian’s fifth birthday. They had even gotten doctors to come to the boat for their vaccinations, using bribes and the excuse that they didn’t want to take the kids out in public until they were vaccinated. They happened to be in the vicinity of Japan when Caspian asked if they could see the land for his birthday so they made port and took all three of the kids to the playground. 

It took a little while before they managed to adjust to walking on land but they already knew the language so that was a plus. Duke had taken to teaching the kids and Audrey all the languages he knew which were a lot. The kids had started so young that it was easier for them than it was Audrey, but she was getting there. The kids could often be heard babbling in multiple languages at once though. None of the kids ever wanted to spend a lot of time on land, but after that they did get in the habit of hitting playgrounds for each of their birthdays. 

Duke and Audrey did their schooling themselves on the boat and all three of them were smart enough that they finished high school level before they were sixteen. Caspian was fourteen. None of them wanted to go to college though. It would involve living primarily on land for four years or more after all. That didn’t mean they stopped learning and they were all glad when electronic readers came out that didn’t require the internet to use. They could just download the books they wanted when they were in port and then read them whenever they felt like it. It drastically increased the cargo space on the boat once they got the libraries converted into electronic format. 

Each of the kids got a boat of their own for their twenty-first birthdays, just like Duke had gotten the Rouge for his. They grew up in the family business and all three of them kept it going. Duke couldn’t help but think that the Crocker smuggling legacy was a much better one that the serial killer of troubled one that his dad had tried to force on him. The four boats travelled together for a few weeks every year while the family got together, but the rest of the time they were all off in their own little corners of the world, keeping in touch via e-mail whenever one of them was in port. 

All of the boats had trackers for the family’s use, so when none of the kids had heard from either of their parents in months, they checked the tracker and converged on the Rouge that was sitting adrift, ninety-two year old Duke and eighty-six year old Audrey dead in their bed, still wrapped in each other’s arms. They got a burial at sea and the Cape Rouge passed on to Basilio Crocker, Lucy’s oldest son who was just two weeks shy of his twenty-first birthday. When they gave him the option, he had jumped at the chance to keep the ‘Crocker Flagship’ as they called it, in the family.


End file.
